Columbia Journalism School names inewsource 2015 Berger Award Winner

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“An Impossible Choice,” the inewsource investigation that delved into an unseen world where thousands of people are kept alive on machines, has won the prestigious Meyer “Mike” Berger award for in-depth human interest reporting from Columbia Journalism School.

This is the third national recognition for “An Impossible Choice.”

The Berger award is named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with the New York Times. It was decided by Columbia faculty members, who wrote,

“An Impossible Choice: ‘Deciding When a Life is No Longer Worth Living’ is a combination of powerful investigative journalism and good storytelling, commendable for its formal innovation. It employs audio and video as well as text in complimentary ways to deepen the story, carrying on the ideals Mike Berger exemplified in the shoe-leather era for the digital age.”

inewsource reporters Joanne Faryon and Brad Racino, who produced the project and 10-minute mini-documentary, will go to New York to receive the award and speak with journalism students at Columbia in May.

Here is how Columbia Journalism School describes Berger and the award on its website:

Meyer “Mike” Berger won a 1950 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for his story on a veteran who went on a shooting spree in Camden, New Jersey, killing several residents. He then re-introduced the newspaper’s “About New York” column in the early 1950s, setting the standard for evocative and eloquent human interest reporting. Berger passed away in 1959. Louis Schweitzer, a New York industrialist who admired Berger’s work, created the Berger Award in 1960.

To read “An Impossible Choice,” to view its videos, animation and to participate in a community conversation, visit: impossiblechoice.org.

If you are member of inewsource, thank you! This kind of journalism would not be possible without your support.